Camping, and Sand Dunes, and Taos...Oh my!

My bosses Carla and Echo took the company on a camping trip last weekend. We left early Thursday afternoon and headed up to the Cripple Creek KOA. Ironic to Will and I- we went there once in April and figured we'd never be back...and this was our 3rd time going there in the past 4 months!

Camping was great with the whole team! One of my coworkers Mark brought his bags game, so we played many, many rounds, complete with calistenics for the losing team. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I was often on the losing team so I did a fair number of leg-lifts and push-ups. We did some team building exercises, too. Those were equally competitive. We had to show our best dance moves, and prove our ability to shotgun a beer- I won that competition, hands down. :) Other than that we spent most of our time eating, drinking, and chopping wood to keep our campfire going at night. We all got to stay in cabins, so it wasn't truly camping, but we had a good time.

Saturday morning Will and I packed up early to get on the road to the Sand Dunes National Park. We bought a National Parks pass last fall and want to hit as many national parks as we can while the pass is good. We were just a few hours from the Sand Dunes from Cripple Creek. The drive is really, really pretty, but barren! We (well, I) was worried about running out of gas on the side of the road- even gas stations were few and far between. We did find a gas station...and paid the most that I have ever paid for a gallon of gas- $4.09. Gulp...will the prices ever go down?!

We got to the park around lunchtime, picked out our campsite, ate some lunch and took a hike up to a lookout point for a really cool view of the dunes. Unfortunately that is about all we were able to do at the park. There were some dark clouds looming during our hike, and we got back to our campsite with just enough time to put our tent up before the sky opened up and it started dumping rain. We tried to wait it out under a tree, then eventually moved to the visitors center. It looked like the worst was over, so we went back to our campsite, but the rain picked up again as soon as we got there. So we did what every rainy camping trip calls for- we sat in the car with a beer and worked out 5 crossword puzzles. Around 6:30 the rain still hadn't let up, so we decided to give up and leave the campsite. Camping in the rain with no fire is just not fun.

We were headed toward Canon City, where the Royal Gorge Bridge is (a place Will insists we go before we leave for Nashville- I'm not sure how I feel about walking across a 1200 ft. tall bridge) when I looked at a map and realized how close we were to New Mexico. I had never been to New Mexico, so on a whim we turned south and went to Taos! We rolled in around 9:30 and quickly realized that Taos was not exactly a happening place, particularly at night. And as our luck would have it, it was raining there, too! We just couldn't escape the rain!

We got a hotel room at the ever-so-nice Don Fernando Hotel after driving back and forth along the "downtown" street and not finding any place else. And instead of dining on tasty southwestern cuisine at a cute little restaurant we got Applebees to-go and watched a few episodes of "Myth Busters" before going to bed. Talk about a bust...Taos was definitely one on Saturday night!

Sunday we slept in and repacked our very wet tent in its bag. We left the sand dunes in such a haste we didn't bother to put the tent away properly. We were more concerned with keeping ourselves dry so packed up as quickly as possible. Then we drove through the downtown area again to get to the Taos Ski Valley. It looks much cuter during the day! We didn't realize that ll the buildings in Taos are built to look very southwestern-y.

The drive to Taos Ski Valley is really pretty! There is a national forest the whole way up and a really pretty river that runs right along the road. There was a bike race happening on the top of the mountain...but not much else. We spent awhile walking around and then decided to set off for home. Every ranch we passed I swore was Julia Roberts'. She owns a ranch just outside of Taos.

The ride home was really pretty, too. We drove right through the mountains and through a really cute little mountain town...too bad I forgot the name. All in all it was an unexpected trip, but I do love being spontaneous, so it was a lot of fun!

Mile High Music Fest

What an exhausting weekend! The first Annual Mile High Music fest happened- 24 hours of music over 2 days, and we attended both days, from start to finish. It was hot, loud, crowded, and tiring...and overall, awesome. :)

I loved that I got to see a lot of my favorite bands in such a short period of time! For being the first concert they have had like this in Denver, I thought everything went exceptionally well. There were plenty of porta potties (though they could have been more spread out across the park), there was a TON of space so you didn't have to be dripping sweat on your fellow concert goers, they had 2 tent stages set up so you could escape the sun and still listen to music, and there were several free water spots around the park. But Lord, was it hot!! Saturday the high was 97 and Sunday it actually hit 100 degrees! We were very responsible (unlike many, many people) and drank lots of water in lieu of beer so we could stay hydrated. That definitely helped us be able to hang until the bitter end on both days!

My only complaint about the event was the parking situation. It took over an hour to get out of the parking lot on Saturday! I don't think they were prepared for the number of cars that would be trying to leave at the same time. That was frustrating, especially since all you want to do at the end of a long day of sun and music is to climb into bed as quickly as possible! Sunday wasn't a whole lot better, but they did seem to move traffic more quickly, which was nice.

Over the course of the weekend we got to see Eric Hutchinson, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Bob Schneider, One Republic, The Roots, The Black Crowes, Tom Petty, OAR, John Mayer, The Flobots, Dave Matthews, Ingrid Michaelson, Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, and Gavin DeGraw, Tea Leaf Green, and a few others. Not a bad weekend of music!

Will was a trooper and put up with me dragging him from one stage to the next, and didn't complain when I danced and sang loudly to my favorite songs. :) We had a great time hanging out with Jenn (one of his college friends) and her boyfriend Brian. We have similar tastes in music so we were able to see a lot of shows together.

Date night!

Will is always full of surprises. He planned an impromptu date for me last night! After work we went for drinks at the Marriott downtown, and then to the Keg for dinner. Such a fun way to spend a random Tuesday night. Good food, great company, lots of laughs....and carrot cake "to go" for dessert tonight. :) I love this guy so much- he makes me a very happy camper.

Camping

We FINALLY got to go camping last weekend with a few friends! We drove up to the Nederland area and did some car camping along the Caribou trail. Car camping is much more my style than backpacking. I love being able to have a fire and lots of good food and a big cooler and music playing from a car. WAY better than throwing everything on your back and hiking a long way to a campsite with no fire to keep you warm.

I went 4-wheeling for the first time! We took 3 4WD vehicles and had a blast on the trails. It is amazing how the cars are able to traverse some of the terrain. The highlight was definitely going across a creek and through a bunch of mud to get to our campsite. :)

The weather was perfect camping weather...hot during the day, cold (really cold!) at night and not a cloud in the sky so we saw lots of stars. Unfortunately Will and I had a rough night's sleep thanks to our poor tent layout choice. We were leaning to the left so I ended up right against the side of the tent, with Will trying hard not to roll on me all night. We had a great time, though. Can't wait to get in some more trips before the summer's over.

Stranded!

We had a great weekend in Nashville. Spent many, many hours on their boat, looking at some really nice, massive houses on the lakefront. Unfortunately we won't be moving into one of those homes right away. We need a year or two to become millionaires before we can purchase our fantastic lakefront property. :)

On Saturday Will and I drove around the different areas of Nashville so I could get a better idea of the "neighborhoods" we will potentially be living in. We both agreed that we don't want to live right downtown. I am looking forward to living in a neighborhood-like community that's still close to lots of restaurants and shopping, etc... Kind of like an urban suburb, if that makes sense. I really liked the Green Hills area. It's just a few miles from downtown and near Belmont and Vanderbilt Universities. There seems to be lots of shopping nearby, including a big mall (with a Cheesecake Factory! Yay!) and grocery stores are in the area, too. It's also relatively close to parks, which is nice. The best part about the area is that Trader Joes is going to be opening there soon! I'm definitely sold on that area!

We had some excitement on our trip back to Denver. Our Delta flight was scheduled to leave Nashville at 6:30 Sunday evening, go to Atlanta, then we had to catch another plane to Denver. When we showed up at the airport around 4:45 we were greeted by a HUGE line for the Delta counter. Uh oh. Apparently Atlanta had been hit with some big storms which in turn cancelled or delayed most flights. We were told by a Delta rep that our best bet was to get on the phone with Delta and try to get our flights worked out. Will was able to get through after holding for about 25 minutes and was told that the earliest they could confirm us on a flight back to Denver if we stayed in Nashville was the following Tuesday- 2 days later! There was no way that would have worked since I had to be at work the next day. Our other option was to take the much delayed flight to Atlanta and be confirmed for a 7:40 PM departure from Atlanta to Denver the next night. Either way, I was not going to make it to work on Monday.

We opted to get to Atlanta, so we hung around the airport and took our original flight...just 3 hours later than it was expected to depart. We got into Atlanta after midnight and headed straight to the hotel shuttles to try to get a room for the night. We were greeted there by utter chaos. There were hundreds of people crammed into a tiny area, all trying to catch shuttles to their respective hotels. The storms had stranded a lot of people. And being as late as it was, most people were grumpy. We made it to our hotel and got checked in just after 1 AM. We were exhausted, but hungry! Unfortunately no delivery services were available that late, so we shared a bag of animal crackers from the vending machine and passed out.

Since we didn't have to be at the airport until late afternoon on Monday we made the most of our day in Atlanta. Got a late checkout, ordered room service for breakfast, showered (and put the same clothes back on...always nice) and headed back to the airport to take the train downtown. I get now why that city is called "Hotlanta"- it was obscene how humid and hot it was! We went to the Underground, which is essentially an underground mall, walked through the Olympic park (where kids were playing in a water fountain...and had I had a change of clothes with me, I would have joined them!), and ended up going to the Aquarium, mainly to get inside to some air conditioning! The aquarium wasn't the most impressive one I've been to, but it was nice and cool, so I wasn't complaining!

Our flight home, surprise!, was delayed so we ended up getting back to Denver around 11 PM on Monday night, roughly 24 hours late. I'm really glad that Will is a good travel companion and is willing to go with the flow. I was so happy to get home and back to peace and quiet...I was getting really sick of being around hordes of people! Ah, the joys of traveling!

Nashville??

So in the ever-changing world of us, we are probably moving to Nashville in October. Will has a really great opportunity to take over his Dad's McDonalds franchises. His dad wants to retire in early 2011 and Will would need to work with him for at least one year before that, so our plans to move to Australia for a year are looking pretty slim. If we left for Australia next March, 2009 we would return in March 2010 and then Will wouldn't get the full year's work in with his dad before he retired.



It's not that difficult of a decision for me. I am starting to become more serious about pursuing a teaching role. I have wanted to be a teacher for a long time, but opted for a business degree in college instead of an education degree. The more and more I think about it, the more I see myself being happy as a teacher. Sure, the pay isn't always great, but I love kids and can genuinely see myself as enjoying my career instead of just working to have a job. I am looking into programs in the Nashville area that will get me a masters in education. I should be able to get degreed and certified within 2 years.

I let my bosses know about the move on Monday, which makes it all that much more official. We are heading to Nashville tomorrow to spend the 4th weekend with Will's family. I'm pretty excited to check my soon-to-be town out! I know next to nothing about Nashville, so Will is going to act as my tour guide this weekend. He wants to buy a house, but we'll probably rent for at least 6 months to get a feel for the city and what part of town we'd like to live in. It's exciting, though! Will is going to have a great career (and hopefully I will follow soon after...) and it's pretty much guaranteed that we'll be in one set spot for a LONG time, instead of moving every few years. Guess I need to start brushing up on my line-dancing skills and learn to recognize country music stars...